


Kiss Me Hard Before You Go

by Ridja



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-28
Updated: 2018-10-28
Packaged: 2019-08-09 00:26:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16439696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ridja/pseuds/Ridja
Summary: Spoilers for episode 4 of LiS."Finally, in Joyce’s room, she found a letter from a doctor. At last, she understood why Chloe felt so close and yet so distant from her.She was dying.Was that why she wouldn’t flirt with Max like in their usual reality? Was she trying to keep Max from suffering with her inevitable fate?As if something as trivial as death could keep them apart."





	Kiss Me Hard Before You Go

**Author's Note:**

> I promise it has a happy ending. Hope you guys enjoy it :3

Walking around Chloe’s house in that reality felt almost surreal. As if she was trapped in a midpoint between a dream and a nightmare, her mind going in circles, wondering if that had been the right choice, if sacrificing a part of who Chloe turned out to be was worthy just to keep the Price family whole. 

This Chloe wasn’t her Chloe, but she also wasn’t whoever she was supposed to be if no accident happened to her or her father. She missed that spark that would always make Max feel alive whenever they were close to one another. She hardly sounded like herself, her voice carrying a sad, weak undertone different from the fire and anger she would usually show. 

She had to come back to Chloe’s room, just to check up on her again before continuing on her mission to get her morphine. It wasn’t even smart, since just getting her friend the med would make more sense to make her feel better, but she just couldn’t help it. 

Chloe was still there, of course and she still seemed to be in pain, but she changed her expression as soon as Max got in, smiling a little at her friend. 

“So, are you sure it isn't too weird for you to be hanging out with me like this?” She asked. Max shook her head, silently at first. The truth was that it was, but not because of Chloe herself. It was Max’ fault that things were like this. But most importantly, it felt weird because just yesterday everything else was so different, a whole other reality. Chloe’s room was a different world than the room they were standing in now.

“No way. I don't want you to feel weird.” She answered, truthfully. In whatever reality, the last thing she wanted was to see Chloe unhappy, that’s why they ended up there in first place.

“My life is just so different than yours. I mean, we can't just bounce out of here and... I'll be doped up half the day in pain. So that's cool.” She paused, a thoughtful expression on her face. “But I do feel grateful I can see the ocean, that I have parents who love me, and that my best friend is here with me today.”

That made Max smile at herself internally just a bit. Like in the real world, Chloe took her back immediately, comfortable with her presence as if she had never left. And no guilt tripping this time. Maybe this Chloe didn’t have time for that.

Max almost missed it.

“Exactly. So, what else do you need?”

“Well, hot monkey sex would be nice.” That answer was so unexpected that Max froze completely for a second, feeling her cheeks getting red. She was used to regular Chloe’s flirty sentences, but she definitely wasn’t expecting that at that moment.

“Oh, look, I made Maxine blush!” Of course she would make sure to point that out. “So, are you dating anyone at Blackwell?”

“I'm too busy with school and photography.” 

And with messing around with time and space and screwing everything up.

“Oh, please. You can't be an artist unless you experience life... That includes boys, girls, whatever.”

Max waited. This was usually the part where Chloe would flirt with her or include herself as an option or anything of the sort but there wasn’t. She forced the subject a little more.

“This guy Warren asked me out, but I turned him down. Now he's with somebody else…” Not that she minded, even if it was kind of weird that Warren ended up with Stella instead of Brooke.

“His loss. You need to move on, girl. Plenty of fish in the 'Bay…” Chloe chuckled. “Shit, I sound like my dad.” 

Max forced a chuckle as well as her mind played a similar scenario in her mind, but in a whole other reality, one where Chloe concluded that thought with ‘I just don't think anybody is good enough for you... besides me’.

It was sort of selfish that among everything, the fact Chloe didn’t flirt with her bothered her so much, but it just felt out of character. She didn’t even know how serious Chloe’s flirting was, but she never realized how much she enjoyed it until now that it was gone. 

“I’m sorry, I’ll go look for the morphine now.” She told her friend who nodded.

“Thank you, Max…”

She snooped around the house, still trying to get used to all of it. Talking to William felt as surreal as everything else. It was horrible to see how much money the Price had to spend with Chloe and especially how little they got from insurance and the government. It was really unfair. As if disabled people weren’t allowed to live.

Finally, in Joyce’s room, she found a letter from a doctor. At last, she understood why Chloe felt so close and yet so distant from her.

She was dying. 

Was that why she wouldn’t flirt with Max like in their usual reality? Was she trying to keep Max from suffering with her inevitable fate?

As if something as trivial as death could keep them apart.

Max needed a couple moments after reading that letter, placing it back where it belonged. She had seen Chloe die once. Almost twice, thanks to the train, but she rewound fast enough. But it still happened in the bathroom and even if she didn’t even know it was Chloe, she wondered if she knew it deep inside for she had been instantly struck with the urge to save her. 

But this time, it wasn’t reversible, or rewindable for that matter. Her respiratory system was failing and there wasn’t anything she could do about it. Her power wouldn’t heal that and for the first time, that power felt completely useless.

****

Upon finding the morphine, Max headed back to Chloe’s room, her pained expression seemed worse now and she instantly regretted that she had taken so long.

“Finally… Uh... Give me the blue pill…” Each word sounded like an effort. Max frowned.

“I'm sorry. I'm nosy, but not precise.” 

“Go ahead and plug it right in. It's so easy. And painless.” Max nodded, staring a bit scared at the IV. She had never done anything like that before and just the thought of possibly doing something wrong scared her, even if she could rewind.

“Uhn, okay, but get ready to yell for your folks if I screw up...” She said honestly. Chloe smiled.

“Oh, trust me, I will…” She paused. Max was scared she had done something wrong for a moment but Chloe carried on. “Of course, my pain just keeps getting worse… But you caught me on a good day.”

Max’ felt her insides twisting with that confession.

“Max, I'm so grateful that I'm even able to hang out with you. See, I'm getting mushy. I'm already high.”

“You are so adorable. Do you want anything else?”  
“Adorable” was a simple word, perhaps too simple for everything Chloe truly was for her, but it would have to do for the moment.

Chloe requested to see an old photo album with plenty of pictures of them as kids. They went through the pictures remembering their good times and even laughing, but the melancholic vibe that hung in the air never really left.

At last, Max stopped in a picture of her and Chloe making pancakes, five years ago, the day William died. That picture. The one that could erase this awful reality where Chloe was destined to fade away.

This photo, maybe I could…

“Listen, Max.” She looked up at Chloe. “My respiratory system is failing and... And it's only getting worse… I've heard the doctors talking about it when they thought I was zonked out.” The sad undertone was back in her voice, but at the same time she sounded surprisingly lucid. So I know I'm just putting off the inevitable, while my parents suffer along… And I will, too. This isn't how I want things to end.”

Max didn’t feel as lucid, though. Even if she had read about that in a letter, hearing Chloe herself say it felt as if someone had shot a crossbow right at her heart, a poisoned crossbow that stung every piece of her.

Chloe looked away for a moment. 

“I'm saying that being with you again has been so special. I just wanted to feel like when we were kids running around Arcadia Bay...and everything was possible. And you made me feel that way today. I want this time with you to be my last memory…” She looked back at Max, right into her eyes, a glance filled with love and pain. “Do you understand?”

Overwhelmed, Max allowed her glance to face away from Chloe.

“Yes, I do.”

She stared back at her friend, sighing.

“All you have to do is crank up the IV to eleven…”

Max froze completely, her eyes watering up. How could she make that choice? All she had done so far was try to protect and save Chloe, to keep her alive and make her feel happy and as special as she was. Was the universe trying to punish her from going way too far with creating this whole other reality? It was sick, unfair and even perverse.

“Chloe...I really don't know if I can do this. I had another friend who wanted to...end it all and I did everything I could to try and save her life. How can I be responsible for ending yours? I mean, there's got to be another way.” She said sincerely, biting her lower lip. Being with Kate in that roof had been the most stressing and traumatizing moment in her life, especially because her powers had been useless, just like they were in that reality.

“Max, you were there for your friend no matter what.” She sounded even weaker and sadder now. “Now I'm asking you to help me the same way.” 

“I want to help you, Chloe, but I think my help is hurting.”

If it wasn’t for her help, Chloe wouldn’t even be in that bed, requesting something like that. Some friend she was.

“At least you have a choice. When you want to make a decision, you can just do it. Look at me, I'm at the mercy of... Everybody. For once, I want to make my own choice... The most important one of my life. Please... Help me, Max.”

Max sighed longly, her merciful nature making it impossible for her to refuse that request. She got up, swallowing hard, but instead of going straight for the IV, she paused, facing Chloe.

“Max, please…”

“I’m doing it, but…” She ducked, placing her hands on Chloe’s cheeks gently, caressing them. Her friend stared back at her as if trying to make sense of what Max was doing but smiled, her eyes watering up as much as the other’s. At last, Max closed the gap between their lips.

Even if everything else was different, somehow Chloe still tasted the same, perhaps minus the cigarette and weed aftertaste, but her lips were still as soft as ever. Max couldn’t help but smile a little against them, for a moment forgetting completely about the context of that kiss, caressing her cheeks and deepening it just a little. Both of them were kind of clumsy, since in this reality it was unlikely Chloe had ever kissed anyone, and maybe there was more saliva than necessary, but neither of them truly cared about that in that moment, allowing themselves to melt in each other. When they pulled apart, Max placed a kiss on her friend’s nose, forehead, cheeks and chin, delicately caressing Chloe’s cheeks before she got up to attend to her request.

“I'll just drift asleep... Dreaming of us here together... Forever.” 

Max smiled weakly, cranking up the IV, trying not to freak out about the fact she was technically killing someone and that someone was her best friend.

“Thank you so much. I'm so proud of you for following your dreams. Don't forget about me.” Chloe said, her voice already sounding softer.

“Never.”

“I love you, Max. See you around.”

“Sooner than you think.”

And just like that, she was gone. But at least she knew she was loved and passed with a smile on her face.

Max couldn’t stand spending another minute in that reality and she prayed to whatever was out there that she would be able to “photojump” again. Even if she would have to let William go.

But Chloe came first.

****  
Later on, when Max woke up, she could hear faintly hear the sound of a happy-ish folk tune. Looking around, she could see a lot of posters in the wall, the american flag in the window and a blue haired girl sitting on the table using the computer. Excitement took over her as she made sense of where she was.

“Chloe, you’re alive. Yes!” She launched herself over her friend, snuggling her tight. She could hold her forever, but Chloe pushed her away with a intrigued look.

“Whoa! Down, Max! You get one kiss and now you're all over me…”

Fuck. She had no idea. Max would easily kiss her again right there, a happier, lighter kiss this time, but maybe it would be weird. She stood there, frozen for a couple of seconds which made Chloe tilt her head and frown.

“I hope you weren’t messing with time while I was sleeping, Max…”

Max panicked a little. She could never tell Chloe about where she had been and what had happened so instead, she approached her friend again, holding her face gently. Partially because she wanted to avoid any more questions from Chloe, but mostly because she was exploding inside, all kinds of emotions mixing up, from sadness to nostalgia to melancholia to the happiness and relief that things came back to normal.

She pressed her lips against Chloe’s. The other girl froze, her whole body tense and her lips not moving against Max’ who wondered if she should just pull away. However, Chloe relaxed under her touch and closed her eyes, embracing and pulling Max closer, which ended up making her sit on her lap. 

Their lips moved slowly against each other’s, each of the girls taking in each other’s taste and how their soft, slow breathes touched each other’s faces. This Chloe tasted so different from the alternative reality one, thanks to weed and cigarettes, but at the same time she could still feel that natural Chloe taste. Everything about it as hypnotizing as Chloe herself. 

Once they pulled apart, Chloe smiled a little, caressing Max’ back, but they remained quiet, neither understanding what had just happened completely. 

“We should, uhn… Proceed with our investigation…” Max stated, her cheeks warm. Chloe chuckled, nodding at her. “Let's look at the big board and see all our pieces in the puzzle so far.” She said, hopping off of Chloe’s lap to go look for the clues.

If she could focus at all.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, please let me know if you enjoyed the fic! You can also find me on tumblr under the-mightywanheda or on twitter under @smolsassygay
> 
> Thanks, lovelies!


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